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Hotels in Paris Welcome the Decision of City Council to Force Airbnb Registration

It’s not a secret for anyone that apartment rental services like Airbnb have become a real problem for hotel chains in recent years. The most visited city in the world, Paris, is no exception. While hotels in Paris had to struggle with numerous challenges caused by different factors including terror attacks, the Airbnb segment was in a privileged position. This will end in December as starting from this month a new rule by Paris City Council comes into action. All people who offer their apartments for rent on short-term rental services like Airbnb will be obliged to register their properties with the town hall.

The buzz around Airbnb is much like Uber that is currently facing problems with legislators in different countries. The hotel lobby was seeking the attention of the government in order to put an end to the unfair competition with the rental service. Airbnb and other services of apartments for short-term rental are often accused of creating the shortage of housing in many gateway destinations, especially in Berlin and Paris. They are also one of the reasons for growing property prices in the above-mentioned cities. Airbnb is particularly troublesome for hotels in Paris. France is the second largest market for the rental service after the United States and has more than 350,000 offers on the website. The most visited city in the world, Paris, in its turn, is an absolute leader in the single market segment  more than 65,000 listings are present on Airbnb.

Starting from December 1, all owners who want to offer their properties for short-term rental will have to register first and obtain a special number from the town hall. Only once the number is received, it is allowed to put an advertisement regarding the rental.

The City Council has implemented some other rules. For example, main residence apartments will be allowed for rent for no more than 120 days a year. It will also become easier for the local government to detect properties for rent and collect taxes from the owners. With the new system, the process of collecting tourist taxes becomes transparent as well. Airbnb already commented about the new rules and ensured that they would let their clients know about the changes.

These days, many big cities suffer from illegal tourist rentals. In some parts of the French capital, tourist rentals make up as much as 20% of the total accommodation offers. Naturally, services like Airbnb faced much controversy. In 2015, the service agreed to charge the French tourist tax from visitors and pay it to the country’s budget. Last year, it paid 7.3 million euro of the tax.